apparatus

1. 1.

   equipment designed to serve a specific function

   Synonymssetup

   Broaderequipment

   Narroweraeratorburnercascade liquefiercentrifugechemical reactorcondenserduplicatorelectrographgeneratorheat pump
2. 2.

   (anatomy) a group of body parts that work together to perform a given function

   “the breathing apparatus”

   Broaderbody part

   Narrowerauditory apparatus

   anatomy

Other forms of apparatus

plural

apparatuses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about apparatus

What does apparatus mean?

apparatus means "equipment designed to serve a specific function". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in apparatus?

apparatus has 4 syllables: ap-pa-rat-us. The stress falls on "rat". In IPA it is /ˌæpɚˈætəs/.

What is another word for apparatus?

Close synonyms include setup. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is apparatus a common word?

apparatus is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.